A Spectacular Failure
by Argentum Anubis
Summary: Peter makes a silly mistake due to exhaustion and his secret is revealed.


**Warning:** There is language that Steve Rogers would not approve of in this.

 **Spoiler alert** : Spoilers for _Homecoming_. No other spoilers that I can think of. Let me know if you notice a spoiler I didn't think of and I will add it to this.

 **Disclaimer** : I don't own Marvel, Spider-man, or anything else. Otherwise I would be a superhero, too. Or am I already? The world will never know.

 **A/N** : I was getting ready one morning, and came up with this idea. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

* * *

Peter woke up more sore than ever- well, maybe not ever, but this was certainly right up there, a place or two after the morning following his battle with the Vulture.

It was a Monday, and he had accidentally stayed up late Friday, Saturday, and Sunday fighting crime. He'd accomplished a lot in those three nights, but it had left him more exhausted and bruised than he could remember being in a long time.

The previous night- or, rather, earlier that morning- he had slipped out of his spider-man suit and collapsed into his bed with only his boxers on.

In this moment, he rolls out of bed, groaning at the effort.

He didn't need to stand in front of a mirror to see that he looked like Hell. His body was covered in cuts and bruises; he had deep bags surrounding his eyes like a mask on a raccoon. He quickly got dressed in jeans and a long sleeved shirt in order to cover all injuries; he didn't want Aunt May to find out he was spider-man because of something as simple as bruises.

He glanced at the blue and red suit sitting on his floor. He would pick it up, but he was just so tired and sore and… It could wait until late. Besides, Aunt May had stopped cleaning his room for him long ago, after she had taught him responsibility.

He got on his shoes and backpack, wincing as they covered his wounds. Realising that he had overslept and would be late to school if he didn't go instantly, he quickly ran from the room and out of the apartment, shouting goodbye to his aunt.

She called back, but he didn't hear as he was already closing the door behind him.

* * *

Aunt May had noticed how exhausted her nephew had been recently. He was always yawning, and was constantly locked up in his room. She knew this was normal for a teenager, but she still felt bad for him.

"Poor Peter," she mumbled under her breath as she picked up around the house.

She was proud of how responsible he was with school: almost never late, and always doing his work and doing it well. She just wondered if it was worth how tired it made him.

"If only there were something I could do to make things easier for him," she said, contemplating the idea. She glanced casually over at his bedroom through the open door. Clothes coated his floor; textbooks and books alike were piled up against the wall; notebooks and papers covered every inch of his desk that wasn't already covered by writing utensils and his various gadgets.

"Well," she hummed, making her way over to the room. "I guess it couldn't hurt to clean his room for him again. He's been so responsible, and this would take away some of his stress.

She decided to start with the endless heaps of laundry. She could not tell what was clean and what was dirty, so she got a laundry basket and started putting all of the laundry into it.

"Might as well do everything." She grabbed handful after handful, but one item in particular, which sat by his bed, caught her attention. "I don't remember him ever wearing this before." She picked it up, trying to remember where she had seen the strangely familiar fabric. She turned it around and gasped at the logo on the front.

"What the fuck?!"

* * *

Peter was even more exhausted than he had been that morning, if at all possible. He was more than ready to go to his room and do nothing more than sleep for the next few hours. He'd already completed his homework at school, so he didn't have to worry about that. And for once, he had decided to also forgo crime-fighting for the night.

When he reached the door to his apartment, he sighed a breath of relief. Finally, home at last.

He opened the door to discover his aunt May sitting on the couch. "Hey, aunt May," he said with a yawn. "How was your-" He froze as he caught a glimpse of the red and blue fabric in her hands.

"Oh, hi Peter," she said in that strangely calm voice that is scarier than if she were yelling. "My day was good."

"Well… that's good," he replied, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot.

She nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, it was greatly. Until I found this in your room, that is." She lifted the spider-man suit up with an accusatory glance.

His eyes widened even more than before, if that was at all possible. "I can explain!"

She stood up. "Yes, I'm sure you can," she said, throwing the suit at him.

He caught it in the air with his super reflexes.

It was May's turn to be surprised. "What the-?"

"Look," he said, giving her a pleading look. "You just have to calm down and listen to me."

"Calm down?!" she repeated. "Calm down?! How can I calm down when my nephew is a-a masked _vigilante_?!"

He licked his lips nervously. "It's not like that. I'm… I'm doing some actual good, like this."

She pursed her lips. "By fighting the bad guys, whereas I've raised you to stay away from that sort of thing? To run _away_ from the danger, not _towards_ it?"

"It's not that simple," Peter said, his voice a few pitches higher than usual.

"Then what is it?"

And, standing there in the middle of their living room, he launched into a long explanation of everything that had happened: the spider, the changes, how he'd fought thieves and the Vulture, how Iron Man had teamed up with him… everything.

She stood there with a stunned look on her face. "A spider," she said absentmindedly. "All of this, it all happened because of a single spider?"

He nodded, despite it being a rhetorical question.

She moved towards the couch. "I think I _will_ sit down."

He followed her, still clutching his suit. "I have to keep fighting, Aunt May," he told her quietly. "I have to protect people from the evil that's out there."

She kept her gaze on her hands, which sat, folded, in her lap. Finally, she looked up, right into his eyes. "I just want you to be safe," she said, her eyes moist with unshed tears. "I can lose anymore of the people I love... Especially not you."

"I know, Aunt May," Peter whispered. "But a lot of people are also safe because of me. Including you."

"Does anyone else know?" she asked suddenly.

"Just Mr. Stark and Ned."

" _Ned_ knew before _me_?"

Peter blushed. "Uh, yeah. That was kind of by accident."

"Well," she said, frowning at him. "I suppose you are right about helping people by doing what you do. But there is no way I can allow you to continue without some rules."

Peter suppressed a groan; he was lucky that she would let him continue in the first place. There was no way he was going to risk her taking it back.

"But we can deal with that another time," she added, cupping his face in her hand. "You look exhausted."

"I am."

"Then go to bed. We can deal with all of this some other time."

He nodded, standing to go to his room.

"Oh- and peter?"

He turned back to face her.

She smiled. "Don't keep anymore secrets from me. I won't always be able to protect you from the world, but I also don't want you to feel alone in it."

He smiled back at her. "I love you, Aunt May."

"I love you, too."

* * *

Once he was in his room, he closed the door, falling back against it with a sigh of relief.

That couldn't possibly have gone any better. Not only could he still be Spider-man, but May wasn't angry at him. What a miracle.

But still… it was stupid, that she had to find out this way. From now on, no matter how tired he was, there was no way he was going to leave his suit lying around.

He quickly hid it in the spot in the ceiling. He then plopped down on his bed, falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

With great power came the need to take a nap.

* * *

 **A/N** : Yes, I realise that the last line comes from _Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian_. Gotta love it.

Feel free to let me know what you thought.

I am in the process of writing something very similar to this. I am not sure if I'm going to finish it and put it up now that this story is so close (and so much better, too).

Anyway, thanks for reading.


End file.
